Dorothea Spears 

DOROTHEA SPEARS THE POET

1901 – 1991

Published by Johnny and Rosalind Spears
Libertas, Buckland tout Saints, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 2DS UK

Copyright Text ©2021 Johnny and Rosalind Spears The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-8382577-0-5

Designed by Tim Underwood timund@hotmail.com
Printed by Sarsen Press 22 Hyde Street, Winchester, SO23 7DR

Bronze by Nel Kaye 1967

This book is dedicated to Dorothea’s grandchildren and great grandchildren and all those who love her poetry.

CONTENTS

Foreword.

A Brief Biography

Prose .

News Publications ..

Descriptive Writings..

Stage and Radio Plays..

Appendices .

South African Who’s Who 1941 .

A Reminiscence by Chris Perold .

A Double Elegy by Brenda Hammond 

Dorothea’s Apple Pie Recipe ..

Dorothea and Frank 1973 Photograph Mike Edwards

FOREWORD

Dorothea’s friends loved her poems and would read them regularly at the foot of the Leader column in the Cape Times. Daphne Wilson, Chris Perold and Belinda Paterson were some of those fans and their enthusiasm has inspired us to create this book. I hope it is an appropriate recognition of her life and literary output.

Dorothea published four books of poetry which are treasured by those who have them. Those anthologies and the poems we have included in this book reflect her interests including spiritual beliefs, politics, the world, people and love.

As her only surviving son I remember my mother as a calm person who never lost her temper. She took an active interest in everything around her, without interfering. She led by example, demonstrating her values which she instilled in her four sons. One of my earliest memories is of her playing Beethoven and Chopin on her Bechstein piano. Music I still love today. From 1970 when they came to live in England having such special and talented parents living in the wing of our house for twenty years was a wonderful gift to me and our family.

The choice of poems has been difficult – she wrote so many and we have at least 1200! Thank you to Brenda Hammond for permission to include her poem “A Double Legacy” and to Chris Perold for his Reminiscence written for this book before his death. I am most grateful to Cyndi Barker who typed many of them for me, and Tony Hill and Tim Underwood of Sarsen Press who have produced this book with such skill and patience. I hope it will be a lasting memorial to a very talented woman.

Johnny Spears 2021
A comprehensive collection of Dorothea’s poems and recordings

are available on the website www.dorotheaspearsthepoet.com

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Dorothea Spears the Poet

Brief Biography

Dorothea lived from 1901 to 1991, almost the whole of the Twentieth Century. She lived through two world wars and the apartheid era. Her first 17 years were spent in America, the next 50 in Cape Town and the last 20 in England. Her literary output was remarkable especially for someone fully occupied as a wife and mother. There is a complete archive of her life – she kept every letter, photo, newspaper cutting and magazine.

Dorothea wrote poetry. Lots of it. Her work appears in the 1968 Penguin Book of South African Verse, one of her four books of poems “No Common Day” is in the library at the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town and her poems appeared frequently in the leader column of the Cape Times.

Then there are Dorothea’s two marriages. A bishop’s daughter who divorced her husband in 1932 leaving him their two sons. Her second marriage lasted nearly 60 years and her husband was a remarkable, talented man, Frank Spears. This marriage of true minds was inspirational for them both.

CHILDHOOD

Dorothea Johnson was born on 23rd July 1901 in Iowa, USA. Both her parents were born in England and moved to America on their marriage in 1889. Her mother, Sarah Tilsley, lived to be 103 visiting South Africa on her own at 92!

Her father was Ebenezer Samuel Johnson, a Methodist Bishop and Free Mason who went to Africa in 1917 where he worked for twenty years. She had two older brothers. One became a Methodist minister and the other a doctor in Alaska.

Dorothea grew up in Webster City, Iowa and went to high school at Clatskanie, Oregon. She was a bright and successful student who wrote prolifically, both prose and poetry. She drove a car from an early age and was forced to take her first driving test when she came to England in 1970. The first time her parents went to South Africa, Dorothea was left in the US and she wrote

Brief Biography

Eben and Sarah Johnson, Dorothea’s parents

to them “Someday perhaps I’ll come to Africa as a missionary teacher and devote my life to the same purpose for which you folks are living.”

Dorothea driving at 15

ARRIVAL IN SOUTH AFRICA

Next time her parents travelled to Africa Dorothea accompanied them, visiting Japan on the way. This was 1918 and the route chosen was to avoid being involved in the war.

The kimono she was given which is still in the family

In one of a series of articles she wrote in the Cape Argus in 1924 she described in detail the Mitsukoshi, Tokyo's largest store. “It had a rest room on every floor, a lunch room furnished in golden oak with great arched windows and on the roof a tea room with a miniature landscape garden. Can Cape Town match it”, she asked?

On another occasion Dorothea attended a tea party. One of the Japanese wives stared at her for some time and finally asked “Why English ladies don't use powder?” The Japanese ladies all used a white liquid on face and neck. The lips of most respectable damsels are often touched with a bit of rouge.

The Rev Eben S Johnson and Dorothea in Japan

MARRIAGE TO COLIN GRAHAM BOTHA

When the Johnsons arrived in Cape Town they met Colin Graham Botha a widower of 36 with a 7 year old daughter Alice. Dorothea, aged 18, thought it was God's plan for her to marry this distin- guished man and care for Alice whose mother had died. Graham was the Chief Archivist of the South African government and an eminent Free Mason. Dorothea knew nothing of the physical side of marriage before her wedding, believing that sharing a bed with a man was enough to create a baby.

Dorothea and Graham Botha

They were married on 19th November 1919 so they cannot have known each other long. Dorothea was just 18. This was shortly after the First World War and soon Graham and Dorothea went to Europe where Graham attended a conference in Geneva and Dorothea went to the London School of Journalism.

Dorothea, not yet 20, found herself moving in high society circles. She and Graham attended a reception at Claridges in London to meet His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, the Governor General Designate of South Africa (grandson of Queen Victoria) and his wife Princess Alexandra.

Back in Cape Town Dorothea took a course on the motor car run by the University Extension Lectures. Participants wrote weekly essays on subjects that included the theory underlying the carburettor, the valves, the battery and magneto ignition circuits. Dorothea got a First, coming second after a man who worked for an oil company.

Dorothea and Graham had two sons. Colin born in 1921 who at school was the sports champion – Victor Ludorum – and later became the voice of classical music in Rhodesia. Darlow, four years his junior, was the best student academically in his year and became an electrical engineer who moved to USA.

Dorothea with Colin and Darlow

FIRST POETRY ANTHOLOGIES

During this time Dorothea published two books of poems. The first was “My Friend” which appeared in 1925 when she was only 24 and already had one child. Her father wrote the introduction:

From her early childhood days on the Iowa prairies, during her High School years among the fir-clad hills of Western Oregon, where the tumbling falls and the rippling streams sing their way to the mighty Columbia and later, at the period when maidenhood blended into beautiful mother- hood amidst the flowers and trees and mountains of the Cape Peninsula, my daughter has always loved Nature and Folks, and has frequently found expression in song. Here is a tender cluster of the fruit of her affection, a small group of poems on “My Friend” which she sends forth in the hope that they will be understood and appreciated by her friends in many lands. It may be, also, that many who do not know the author will find the little volume an appropriate tribute to their friends.

The Bishop circulated this book to his wide acquaintance and Dorothea kept the many letters from America and southern Africa thanking him and commenting on her talent.

A poem from this anthology:

June Night

I would that you had stood with me That sweet, soft night in June, When all the earth and sea and sky Were perfectly atune:

Dark mountains merging to dark sky; Dark waters to dark land:

Above, the moonlit canopy, By southern breezes fanned. And in the valley far below, And all along the bay,

The city lights, agleam like stars Along the milky way.
I would that you had stood with me All in that soft June night,
To see the handiwork of God
And know His ways are right.

A young Dorothea

In the Foreword to her second anthology published in 1927 “Sunshine and Shadows from the South” Dorothea wrote that it reflected Africa as a land of contrasts.

“its vast silences and its noisy cities, its supreme content and its infinite loneliness; tender and cruel, defiant and relenting.”

Dorothea already had a real affection for South Africa and this poem from this collection expresses it.

The Song of a South African

It’s a beautiful land, a glorious land,
a wonderful land, this land of ours;
With azure skies as blue as the skies of only a Southern land can be,
Majestic mountains in purple haze; the pine and the shimmering silver tree,
And round and round our wondrous Cape the swell of a Southern Sea.
It’s a glorious land where the far veld rolls to the still of the mighty grey Karoo,
Where the aloes lift like spires of flame in the days of never-ending blue;
The open road and the open heart, in a land where hearts are true.
It’s a challenging land, where the grey Vaal flows forever in search of the restless sea, Where the earth is veined with shining gold and the hosts of hidden treasures be,
Where all the world holds an open door, and the souls of men are free.
It’s a beautiful land, where the Drakensberg lift snow-crowned peaks to a brilliant sky, And over and into the Christmas land where East meets West and the palms rise high, Where the warm sun woos in an ardent love, and the ships of a realm go by.
It’s a wonderful land; the tropic East, the smiling Cape with its azure dome

The grey Karoo with its flaming spires: and never the hearts of its loved shall roamFrom this wonderful land, this glorious land. – South Africa my home.

LIFE CHANGING MEETING WITH FRANK SPEARS

Towards the end of 1928 Frank Spears arrived in South Africa. He came from a middle class family near Birmingham and after Grammar school qualified at technical college learning to design railway carriages. He was recruited from England and offered a job in South Africa with Brimble and Briggs, shop fitters. Frank had singing lessons in England and joined musical and drama groups when he arrived in South Africa.

Frank when he arrived in South Africa

Frank was five years younger than Dorothea. Dorothea said she fell in love with Frank when she came down the stairs at a musical soiree and set eyes on him. By the time she had heard him sing in his lovely tenor voice there was no going back for either of them. He had already seen her at the Rosebank Methodist Church and claimed he had seen a shining angel. In 1929 this was a scandal.

Brief Biography In May that year Dorothea sent Frank this poem.

The Unknown

Time was when I wrote glibly Of love and life and death, Knowing none of them.
I sang with honeyed breath Of love and its sweet sorrow: Now that I have learned

The heights and depths of it, Now I have been burned With its sweet flame, I stand As one struck dumb. So life Now I have lived, calls forth No hymns; the joy, the strife Awakens no refrain.

It seems I cannot write
The thing I see. The dream
Is plainer than the sight.
So death alone remains.
To her I tune my lute,
And when I have embraced her I shall be mute.

For three years they loved each other with secretly delivered letters and special names – hers for him “Lad” and his for her ‘Hilaria”. Dorothea was sent to England with young Darlow to prevent her leaving Graham for Frank.

MARRIAGE TO FRANK SPEARS

Their love for each other triumphed. In the application for her divorce Dorothea wrote to the court that the disparity in ages and temperament between herself and Graham made the situation impossible. They were divorced in December 1932 and she and Frank were married 2 days later. The two boys stayed with their father and went to boarding school. They and Alice the step- daughter remained on good terms with Dorothea and Alice always called her Mother. Graham remarried. Dorothea and Frank’s first son Hilary was born in November 1933. He became a Mathematics teacher and Head of Brebner school in Bloemfontein.

A drawing by Frank of Dorothea feeding the baby.

This poem expresses Dorothea’s new found happiness.

The Beautiful Reality

Do you remember how we paused Each half afraid
To put to test the dream
That we had made?

Lest contact with the world should break Its sunny wings?
For dreams, like butterflies,
Are fragile things.

So beautiful, so gossamer; 

So strong and frail-
Like spider’s webs that hold
Before the gale
Yet shiver into ruins at
One ruthless touch.
Oh, dared we risk the dream
That meant so much?
How could we know, at the years end The real would seem
More beautiful and fair
Than any dream?
The web of Love is still unbroke,
The wings still bright;
And life is overfull
Of sheer delight.

Dorothea remained married to Frank until her death in 1991. Dorothea’s mother Sarah accepted Frank once they were married in 1932 and established a good rapport with him. She and the Bishop bought the newlyweds their first home, now known as Hiddingh House in Newlands, Cape Town.

Hiddingh house has a reputation for being haunted and Dorothea held dramatic Halloween parties there. She and Frank also hosted many musical soirees attended by their talented friends, the stars of the period. Johnny remembers creeping on to the landing and watching through the banisters. Although a private person Dorothea loved to entertain, producing delicious meals. She took pride in laying the table to look special, making use of her beautiful collection of family linens, American silver souvenir teaspoons, Japanese pagoda pepper pots, hand painted place cards and other treasures.

Michael John who as a child called himself Johnny because Michael sounded too fierce was born in Newlands in 1938. In this era there was plenty of domestic help – Johnny remembers being looked after by a nanny cum maid called Mary and there would have been help in the garden.

Johnny was called to the Bar in Cape Town and then retrained as a solicitor in England where he practised for 30 years.

Hilary and baby Johnny

Frank was an outstandingly talented man with so many interests that he cannot have had much time for domestic commitments. He painted, he performed in musicals and plays, on stage and radio. He designed boats and 2 houses. He had a full time job working for the shop fitters Brimble and Briggs where he became managing director.

DOROTHEA’S INTERESTS

Dorothea set herself a high standard. She kept a little notebook.
Entertain gracefully. Supervise Hilary’s homework. Provide occupation for Michael. Answer children’s questions, correct their pronunciation. Endeavour to give them some culture. Manage household accounts. Keep evenings free to companion my husband, be ready to come to bed, never too tired.

She was a competent pianist who had studied at the Buena Vista Conservatory of Music (Iowa). In the Spears home Dorothea played the piano, Hilary the cello and Johnny the violin. Dorothea particularly loved Beethoven.

Beethoven Sonata by Frank Spears

This painting is called Beethoven Sonata. You can see the pianist in black, the violinist next to him in cream. Dorothea saved this painting from being sold by persuading Frank to keep it.

In 2018 it was the first painting used on the cover of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s programme at the City Hall. Dorothea and Frank regularly sat in a box at these concerts when they lived in Cape Town.

Gardening was a lifelong passion for Dorothea, from the beautiful big garden in Newlands with its huge oaks to the acres at Constantia. No wonder her son Hilary chose his wedding recep- tion to be in his parents’ garden.

In 1950 Frank and Dorothea left Newlands Avenue and moved to Veritas (which means Truth), Welbeloond Road, Constantia.

Dorothea in gardening bonnet by Frank

Frank designed the house which looked over vines to the Constantiaberg.

Many young people spent time there, finding a couple who treated them as adults and taught them to love art and music. (See Chris Perold’s Reminiscence of Dorothea at the end of this anthology).

Belinda Paterson who knew the family well tells about the time she turned up at the family home to help get ready for Johnny’s 21st birthday party (October 1959). The kitchen was full of shopping bags but no signs of anything having been prepared. “Well” said Dorothea, “my astral body was elsewhere!” I think this gives you an indication of the sort of aesthetic and intellectual woman she was.

Veritas, the Spears home in Constantia designed by Frank

All her life Dorothea read voraciously, poetry, novels and philosophy. Her poetry reflects her knowledge of classics and especially spiritual matters. Reading her poems we can see her early religious faith changed to a more mature philosophy. As a young person Dorothea attended church regularly, even sometimes addressing the congregation herself. Her divorce must have been hard for her to reconcile with her faith. She was an active member of several philosophical societies including the Arcane Society, Woman’s World Peace and World Goodwill. She studied Sufism. A member of Black Sash, she was totally opposed to apartheid.

Song of the Black Sashes

Shall we not mourn, brothers, shall we not mourn, We who have loved liberty more than life.
To see the charter of our freedom torn
And fed into the fires of racial strife?

Shall we not mourn, brothers, we whose sons Must face the future handcuffed to the past

And subject to that rigid rule which stuns

The questing mind to impotence at last?
Shall we not mourn, whose home, whose cherished land Is hedged about with grim unyielding bars
That separate us from the friendly hand.
Forbid us access to familiar stars?
For us and for our children yet unborn −
Should we not mourn, brothers, should we not mourn?

Much of Dorothea’s poetry was written in South Africa and it reflects the Southern Hemisphere’s seasons, the local trees, birds and flowers. Many of her poems comment on leaders such as Rhodes and Smuts, the apartheid situation and political decisions of the time. It is also clear that she was aware of future problems, as seen in “The Rarer Air”, decrying the use of oil.

She had extremely high moral standards. She did not indoc- trinate her sons but provided them with a moral compass which remained with them throughout their lives.

Dorothea, first President of Cape Town’s Soroptimist Club

DOROTHEA THE WRITER

It is Dorothea’s writing that makes her so special. Her poems appeared regularly under the Leader column of the Cape Times from 1920s onwards. In 1952 Dorothea’s third book called “Van Riebeeck A Song of Tomorrow” was published. Apart from the title poem all these had been published before in the Cape Times, Country Life (London) or used by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Van Riebeek A Song of Tomorrow (opening lines) 

Three hundred years ago . . . how short a span
As time is measured by the gods, and yet,
What water ’neath the bridge has flowed to set What ships of State a-float! The immortal Plan

In ever quickening tempo hurries Man To new developments; nor will it let
The smallness of his little plans beget The small result, the flash within the pan.

Van Riebeeck made a garden to supply
His ships with food, a “ Tavern of the Sea ” . . . Think you he visioned what now meets the eye ? And we who celebrate, think you that we
Can predicate what centuries will buy,
Or pierce the future, any more than he?

Dorothea also wrote in magazines stories, observations on life, advice, household hints and recipes. She broadcast about writers and poets and arranged musical and poetry reading evenings. During the war Dorothea wrote a story called “The White Feather” which defended a working man who did not go to the war but remained at home assisting the war effort with his work. This probably demonstrates her feelings about Frank who did not sign up to fight. In 1962 Dorothea was chosen to be the first President of the Cape of Good Hope Soroptimists. This branch of the international organisation still exists today. It is a global volunteer organisation of women working to improve the lives of women and girls through programmes leading to social and economic empowerment.                                                                                                          

Dorothea wrote a number of plays. These included “Modern Marpessa”, “The Man who was God” and “Her Name is Mary”, a programme devised by Dorothea and presented by Walter Swanson with Willa Haynes, Frank Spears and Walter Swanson on the piano. It was broadcast on 26th July 1941. One of the many competitions which Dorothea won was in 1938, the year Johnny was born. It was run by The Outspan magazine to write the words of a Christmas song appropriate for the southern hemisphere.

In 1962 Dorothea wrote words for “Settlers Song” which was set to music by Walter Swanson for baritone solo. In the early 1970s she was commissioned by German composer Klaus Hochman to write the words for his composition “In Memoriam”.

“No Common Day” published in 1962 was Dorothea’s last published book. The poems in this anthology are of an extremely high standard and show a definite maturity.

No Common Day

This life’s no common day.
Events are vast, and moving fast
To some denouement not so far away.
The waiting stage is set,
The die is cast,
But does Man know the part he has to play?

There is a telling comment from Frank about Dorothea in 1967 in Femina magazine, the article called My Ideal Woman.

Is his wife his ideal? Of course not. When I married her, I thought she was my ideal – we all do, don’t we? Now I am happy that, with a little adjustment on both sides, she comes very close.

Dorothea and Frank in Constantia with a beloved Doberman.

Brownwich Farmhouse, Titchfield, Hampshire

MOVE TO ENGLAND

In 1969 Johnny and his wife Rosalind bought Brownwich Farmhouse near Titchfield with help from Frank and Dorothea who decided to come and live in the self-contained wing on the left of the photo. Frank having retired was able to paint full time in the barn on staddle stones. This move was particularly hard for Dorothea who loved the Cape, her friends and organisations. She really felt the cold in England but supported Frank in his determi- nation to return to England, the country of his birth. Making new friends in England was not easy for her. Dorothea was a wonderful grandmother – she had a television set and Johnny and Rosalind did not – the grandchildren got an enormous amount from her and vice versa. She even wrote poetry for them, including this one for her granddaughter Portia.

A Dirge for Jenny

Jenny was my monkey I loved her very dearly

And now that she has gone away I miss her most sincerely.

While living in Titchfield many of their friends from South Africa used to visit Dorothea and Frank. Dorothea always produced delicious meals for them. Her apple pie was legendary and you will find the recipe at the end of this anthology. She still found time to create a wonderful garden full of roses.

Dorothea continued writing poetry including this one about Shakespeare and Titchfield Abbey.

Shakespeare and Titchfield Abbey

Was it on these same lawns or like to these
That you compared your love to a summer’s day

 Lamenting that the darling buds of May

should fade and die
But not your poetry.
Was it beneath the boughs of Hampshire trees Titania held her court to grace your play?
The halls are ruins now that were so gay When you for Wriothesley staged her revelries. Perhaps you kneeled upon the cold stones

of Titchfield Church
Watching the coloured gleam of windowed sun
As I by Meon stream
And while the priest old liturgies intoned
You dreamed your new Midsummer’s Night Dream 

Where now cold marble houses Wriothesley’s bones.

Rosalind says: The fact that Dorothea lived in the wing of our house for 20 years speaks volumes for her as a mother in law. She kept her own counsel and was there when we needed her. When I was 23 and expecting my second baby Johnny was rushed into hospital with a virus which totally paralysed him. Dorothea left Frank to complete the sale and sorting out of their Cape Town home and came to Hampshire to support me. It took Johnny several months to recover.

Meonstoke House, Meonstoke, Hampshire

In 1979 Johnny and Rosalind decided to move to Meonstoke House. Frank and Dorothea were not keen having spent nine years putting down roots at Titchfield. But they did come, once again into their own independent wing. They regularly attended the local church and Dorothea continued to write and created another beautiful garden.

When Dorothea turned 80 Rosalind organised a party to which all her four sons came. Colin from Zimbabwe, Darlow from the USA, Hilary from South Africa and Johnny was at home.

Mary Mackay-James, Hilary's daughter, remembers her grand- mother Dorothea. “I remember visiting her at Meonstoke House when I was about 11. She and Frank had a pair of armchairs on either side of the fire with a table between where they used to play scrabble. They used to bicker with each other .....I remember leaving the room on one occasion in discomfort and came back about 20 minutes later to find her sitting on the arm of his chair in a very affectionate way.”

Frank and Dorothea at Meonstoke 1988

Towards the end of her life Dorothea wrote this poem.

Too tired

Do not bring me beauty now, Nor music. I have had my fill Of feeling. All I ask for now, Is to be utterly still.

Dorothea died in March 1991 and Frank three weeks later. Their romance continued through nearly 60 years of marriage and we can see their dependence on each other. Throughout her life Dorothea remained true to her wonderful gift of writing, both poetry and prose. Thanks to her careful preservation of everything written – cuttings about the family, programmes of music, theatre, Union Castle voyages, letters and her poems and writings whether or not published in newspapers and magazines, there is huge evidence of her talents. As wife of a successful painter, mother of four children and grandmother of 16 she had a full life.

Through her writings Dorothea Spears left an outstanding legacy for later generations. The following poem was written on the death of a young friend.

When one goes forth

When one goes forth into the Great Unknown Alone Wrap the cloak of your love about his heart
Lest he be cold
Setting out so suddenly apart.

But do not hold
The cloak too tightly with your grief,
Only with your memory .......
And let your tears be naught but dew
To comfort you
And give your dearth relief.
But keep the candles of your faith alight
To guide the way
And make the pathway bright.
Remembering the beauty of the day,
Do not hold him at the end
But wrap the cloak of your love about him, so- And let him go, my friend,
Let him go.

APPENDICES

Who's Who .

 Reminiscence .

 A Double Elegy .

 Dorothea's Apple Pie Recipe .

 

SOUTH AFRICAN WHO’S WHO 1941

SPEARS Mrs Dorothea

Wife of Frank Spears artist Cape Town. Born at Webster City, Iowa, USA and educated at Morningside and Buena Vista Conservatory of Music (Iowa); graduated at Clatskanie (Oreg.); qualified at the London School of Journalism; a poet and
journalist. Awarded Lewis Premium for poetry in 1928; South African Eisteddfod
medals for sonnets, lyrics, open poetry, open essay,short story and one act play. Published ‘My Friend’ ‘Sunshine and Shadows from the South’ under the name of ‘Dorothea Graham-Botha.’ Her play ‘The Cowards’ was produced by the ‘Mummers’. Has contributed poems to ‘Country Life’ (London), ‘Poetry Review’ and ‘Poetry of Today’ as well as verse and prose to numerous South African and American periodicals. Is the author of the radio plays ‘Modern Marpessa’ ‘Last Dance before Midnight’ etc and has broadcast literary talks from the Cape Town Broadcasting Studio. Has four sons, Colin and Darlow Botha, Hilary Peter and Michael John. Favourite recreations are music, gardening and motor touring, made a world tour in 1918-1920. Is a member of the ‘Nine Club’ and the Royal Automobile Club. Her address is ‘Oaklands’ Newlands Avenue C.P.

DOROTHEA SPEARS – A REMINISCENCE

The moment passes and the glory wanes – But taste of immortality remains.

If I were to try to find a single word to define, describe and encap- sulate the complex character and personality of Dorothea, the word that comes to mind would undoubtedly be ‘serenity’. But the word would nevertheless be inadequate because it would have to be a serenity which could encompass not only an overriding spiritual dimension, but also a far-reaching involvement in the the things of this world: the role of a near surrogate mother to a gang of active and demanding young people, the friends of her own boys: the role of gracious hostess to the friends and associates of her more flamboyant but equally demanding husband.; and the role of ever-present and reliable accompanist to the music-making of Frank and her sons, music that was an integral part of the Spears household.

That Dorothea was able to combine, fulfil and reconcile these demands made upon her and remain the gracious person and crea- tive artist she was seems to me to be difficult to believe. Yet the evidence is there in the poetry she wrote, finding as had so many before her, the perfect vehicle for her thought in the form of the sonnet, both in its Italian and English forms. For many years these thought-provoking poems added a dimension of literary quality to the leader page of the Cape Times, a feature now, alas, entirely absent from that publication.

I cannot personally think of Dorothea without recalling her voice, her calm, steady, somewhat spare pronouncements with their slightly trans-Atlantic drawl, softly spoken, yet deeply mean- ingful. One felt compelled to listen, weigh and reconsider what- ever it was that she said, which was not always just superficially comforting. Sometimes the harsh truths of real life shone through

with just a hint of healthy scepticism. Indeed it is difficult to talk or write of Dorothea without sounding fulsome. So to set the record straight, let me end with my favourite Dorothea quote. Asked whether she minded that we youngsters all swam naked in their pool she replied, “I have absolutely no moral objection to nudity, but I do sometimes have fairly strong aesthetic objections.”

That, to me, sums up Dorothea.

Chris Perold

Young Chris Perold by Frank Spears

A DOUBLE ELEGY

Brenda Hammond

I saw the Angel of Death pass by,
Dreaming, through the valley of the vines,
An indomitable procession of one.
White swan wings shrugged from unpitying shoulders: Oh who, my dreading heart demanded,
Who is crossing over?

The notice in the newspaper
Caught my eye. Ah!
Now I know the reason and the why The Angel had passed by,
And who was then to die.

Dorothea! Thou
So gentle of voice
So sombre of eye
Hospitality you offered from your heart, Wholewheat scones with honey Sunday’s apple tart.

This vale of Constancy was where we met. You lived here then,
I live there now.

She was old, and far away Complicated karmic knots she bore, Yet tranquillity on her brow she wore. The precious lotus, its pendant pearl A sheen of calm acceptance.

On her lawn, the flowering cherry Resplendent in blossom,
Seemed the very
Personification of her soul.

I’d loved her too. She’d guided me Towards my own, uncertain destiny.
Just one month later, I discover.
Her husband Frank has followed yonder.

Frank,
You stood at the piano and turned the page Of the song you sang
That initial, introduced broadcast night, When you and Christopher Fry
Awoke me from a sleep
And opened doors
That otherwise might never have been.

For me you were Renaissance man: Talented, aware on a surprising scale, Singing, acting, painting, designing –
To every art you turned your hand. Capricious, mischievous, you
Ignored the dulling comfort of the mundane And had the cheek to challenge,

The limits and the chains,
That convention or habit frames For others of us, less bold than you.

Your life was ever creating anew Exploring, discussing, and arguing too.

Brenda Hammond by Frank Spears

My portrait sketched one afternoon Hangs on the wall in our entrance hall: And Bach’s Saint Matthew’s Passion Was singing in the Cathedral,

The time that you were called. I heard it first with you.

The gift and grace of knowing Certain people in our lives
Is blindly precious to us;
But now too late acknowledged Too easily unrecognised.

DOROTHEA’S APPLE PIE

Ingredients

Cooking apples

Nearly 1 kilo – peel, slice and cook for 2-3 minutes Add sugar to taste

Pastry

250gm plain flour 

2 big teaspoons baking powder Half teaspoon salt

mix all these

mix all these

Cover pastry board (or flat surface) with flour and roll out pastry to cover bottom of pie dish, keeping enough for top layer

Apples

When cool add to pie.
Scatter over a very little of – sugar, cloves, ginger and cinnamon. Brush edge of pastry with egg and pinch up joined pastry edges.

Put in fridge till ready to cook.
Oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar when cooked.

2 tablespoons sugar  

70gm vegetable fat 85gm soft margarine
1 large egg mix in